Empress of the Underworld by Gilbert L. Morris

Author:Gilbert L. Morris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 2011-01-11T05:00:00+00:00

9

Worms!

Are you sure this is the place, Beren?” Josh asked.

The small band had traveled hard since leaving the village, and all were weary. Now Josh looked about at the underbrush and the sheer face of the wall that stood before them. “I was looking for something a little more impressive than this.”

Beren nodded firmly. “Right down that way about a half mile you’ll find a gate. But we can’t go in that way.”

“Why not?” Dave asked.

“Because it’s the front door of the kingdom, and it will be well guarded. Besides,” Beren added, “it has a spell on it, and only the servants of the empress know how to break the spell and cause the door to open.”

“I expect that fellow Lothar knew it all right,” Josh said. He looked both ways, then down at the ground. “It’s hard to believe that there’s all you say underneath where we’re standing. It looks just like any other kind of ground to me.”

“The Kingdom of the Underworld is not obvious.” Beren leaned against the wall of stone and took a deep breath. “We have been content in the past to live our own lives. Our contact with the surface dwellers has been limited.”

Wash had been walking up and down while Beren gave them this information. Now he said, “Well, how do you get into the Underworld then, Beren?”

“I will show you.” He moved along the base of the rock and, coming to a pile of shale and small boulders, nodded. “It’s right here.”

As the Sleepers gathered around, Mat complained, “Looks like a pile of rocks to me. I don’t think there’s anything there.”

“I do,” Tam said cheerfully. “You want me to move some of that stone for you, Beren?”

“Yes. We keep this entrance carefully covered. Only two or three people in the Royal Family know about it.”

Uncovering the entrance did not take long, for when the Gemini Twins and the boys did not make much headway, Volka grunted, “Ho, move aside.” With his huge hands he began pulling at the rocks. “Hroom!” Soon he had laid bare a tiny entrance. “There.”

Beren grinned. “I don’t think it’s big enough for you. You ought to make it bigger, Volka. But this is the place!”

When Volka had enlarged the hole, Beren said, “This is a dangerous way.” His eyes grew serious. “Watch out for the worms.”

Reb stared at him, then scoffed. “Worms! Why, I use them for fish bait. I’m not afraid of any old worm.”

“These worms are different,” Beren said grimly.

“How different?” Sarah asked tentatively. She shivered a little. “I never could stand to put a worm on a fish hook.”

Beren hesitated, then said, “You wouldn’t put these on a fish hook, Sarah. They’re enormous—and dangerous.”

“What do they look like?” Jake demanded.

“They look pretty bad,” Beren said. “In the first place, they’re big—about a foot or more in diameter. And sometimes up to twenty feet long.”

Reb whistled. “Boy, that would be fish bait.”

“And another thing—they’re poisonous. They have an ugly-looking head with horns, and in those horns are poison sacs.

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